Lightning-fast progress in clean energy - Western Colorado Alliance for Community Action

There’s no understating the lightning-fast progress that clean energy policy, jobs, and opportunity have made in Colorado these past three years. Though the pandemic has shaken the industry, Colorado entered 2020 as the nation’s sixth largest employer of clean tech workers. Clean tech industries now employ nearly 30,000 more people than the state’s legacy fossil fuel industries.

At the policy level, state lawmakers and agencies have crafted a policy ecosystem for the growth of these new industries that’s among the best anywhere in the country — thanks to the long hard work of everyone reading this article. Recent state legislation has planted the seeds of future growth by creating a statewide climate action plan, investing in rural clean tech jobs projects through acronyms like DOLA and REDI and the
new state Office of Just Transition, preparing for the massive generational transition to vehicle and building electrification, and forcing Tri-State to map out a cleaner, cheaper future for rural ratepayers.

With these many seeds already producing so healthy a harvest, we might think that Colorado would take a step back this year and content itself with the gains. That’s not how 2021 is shaping up. Here are the big plays in the Colorado clean energy world in 2021. If you want to be a part of the team that works to shape our future, please get in touch with us today.

Throughout the year, Tri-State will continue its legislature-mandated Electric Resource Plan with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission. There, it will tackle major decisions about coal transition, new renewables, the social costs of climate pollution, and future investment — all impacting ratepayer pocketbooks across the Colorado rural electric cooperatives that it supplies. Ratepayers will need to make their voices and priorities heard during forthcoming public comment opportunities.

Tri-State has drafted proposals that foresee hundreds of megawatts — real big power — of new renewables being installed on the Western Slope in the coming decade. The question of where these new investments and jobs will be located is an existential one for many struggling communities. Local and regional elected officials and co-ops need to work together to plan and make their case.
The legislature has tasked state agencies with implementing the nitty-gritty of Colorado’s transition to new clean technologies and a low-carbon economy. Many advocates are unhappy with the planning results from these agencies under the Governor’s watch so far. Expect new 2021 legislation that seeks to accelerate bold specific action and grassroots pushes to make priorities heard at state agency rulemakings.
New state legislation is also in the works to tackle big technical questions like Pay As You Save financing for utility customer rooftop solar and building efficiency, commercial building energy efficiency standards, socio-economic and racial equity in access to renewable energy and cost-saving efficiency services, and more.

Across the Western Slope, rural electric co-op ratepayers will get to vote on Boards of Directors elections for their co-ops in late spring and early summer — in virtually every case by mail ballot. This is a great chance to dialogue with candidates and help your community sort out the visionary from the merely comfortable.

At the federal level, the new administration and congress have come to power with an unprecedented populist vision for new cleantech and infrastructure jobs that can help revitalize opportunity in rural
communities. Whether these goals become our future is up to you and me.
There’s an often-circulated aphorism that, even if questionable in its attribution to some ancient Chinese source, seems to fit this moment: “May you live in interesting times.” We’re fortunate to be here at the cusp of a
civilizational transition that many of you have sought for many long years. I hope you’ll join us in rising to this moment and this work in the year to come.

About the author

Joel Dyar

Joel Dyar joined our Alliance as organizer for clean and renewable energy in 2019. As a 15-year veteran of community organizing in Colorado and six countries, Joel has worked to help social movements and everyday residents discover their power and make their voices heard on a broad spectrum of sustainability, social, and legislative issues. Joel brings a Masters of Community Development and graduate studies in renewable energy and green business to his work on behalf of our energy future.